Rijksmuseum

Object data

black chalk, with grey wash; framing line in grey ink

height 159 mm × width 209 mm

Inscriptions

inscribed on verso, in pencil: lower left, 290; lower centre, 574; above that, in a modern hand, J. v Ruysdael
stamped on verso: lower left, with the mark of Pitcairn Knowles (L. 2643); lower right, with the mark of the museum (L. 2228)

Technical notes

watermark: none

Provenance

…; collection William Pitcairn Knowles (1820-94), Rotterdam and Wiesbaden (L. 2643); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 25-26 June 1895, no. 569, fl. 100, to the dealer C.F. Roos (Amsterdam);¹ from whom, fl. 115, with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, to the museum (L. 2228), 1902, as Jacob van Ruisdael

Object number: RP-T-1902-A-4566

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt

The artist

Jan van Kessel (Amsterdam, 1641 - Amsterdam, 1680)

He was born to the framemaker Thomas Jacobsz. van Kessel (?-?) and Neeltje Henrix (?-?) and baptized in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on 22 September 1641.² In 1668, he married Clara Swichters (?-?).³ The couple had several children, but only one son, Isaac (1670-?), made it to adulthood.⁴

Based on stylistic evidence, Van Kessel probably trained with Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682). He was friends with fellow artist Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709), the only documented student of Ruisdael.⁵ Van Kessel painted mainly townscapes and panoramic views. He occasionally copied whole compositions by Ruisdael but more often he imitated the styles of contemporaries such as Hobbema, Allart van Everdingen (1621-1675), Jan Wijnants (1632-1684) and Jan van de Capelle (1626-1679).⁶ As a result, his work is often catalogued under the wrong name. He is also confused with other minor artists in Ruisdael’s circle, such as Jan van de Meer II (1656-1705), Isaac Koene (1637/40-1713), Jacob Salomonsz van Ruysdael (1629/30-1681) and Anthonie van Borssom (1630-1677).⁷ His earliest known dated works are from 1661, but the Fondation Custodia in Paris holds a sketchbook that probably dates from c. 1659-66 (inv. no. 2006-T.30).⁸

As a draughtsman, Van Kessel worked primarily in black chalk and grey wash and emulated Ruisdael’s mature drawing style. His drawn oeuvre consists of townscapes, tree studies and farmsteads. Some of these sheets are studies for his paintings.⁹ He went on several trips through the Netherlands to draw, occasionally accompanied by Hobbema, who recorded some of the same sites.¹⁰

Van Kessel is often confused with the Flemish painter Jan van Kessel (1626-1679) with whom he bears no familial relationship. The Dutch Van Kessel died at the age of thirty-nine and was buried at the Nieuwezijdskapel in Amsterdam on 24 December 1680.

Carolyn Mensing, 2020

References
U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XX (1927), p. 202; A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992; J. Briels, Peintres flamands au berceau du Sie`cle d’Or hollandais, Antwerp 1997, p. 347; A.I. Davies, ‘Kessel, Jan [Johan] van’, in J. Turner (ed.), The Dictionary of Art, 34 vols., London/New York 1996, XVII, p. 920; J. Giltaij, ‘A Newly Discovered Seventeenth-century Sketchbook’, Simiolus, 33 (2007-08), no. 1/2, pp. 81-93

Entry

Acquired as a work by Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682), this landscape has been given to his presumed pupil Jan van Kessel for some time now. Stylistically, the drawing resembles to a certain degree two other sheets by Van Kessel in the Rijksprentenkabinet, both tentatively datable after 1665 (inv. nos. RP-T-1899-A-2034 and RP-T-1899-A-4280), especially in the rendering of the grass and the tree trunks. However, the hatching in black chalk in a few trees is uncharacteristic for Van Kessel. Therefore, despite the endorsement of the attribution by Van Kessel expert Davies, some reservations remain.

Ingrid Oud, 2000

Literature

A.I. Davies, Jan van Kessel (1641-1680), Doornspijk 1992, p. 244, no. d28, pl. 211

Citation

I. Oud, 2000, 'attributed to Jan van Kessel, Road through a Wooded Landscape, after 1665 - 1680', in J. Turner (ed.), Dutch Drawings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.54012

(accessed 23 September 2024 10:15:25).